Tao Te Ching, Ch 80

The Door of all Wonders:

 The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam 

Chapter 80

Reduce the size and population of the state.

Ensure that even though people have different kinds of tools, 

they will not use them.

Ensure also that people will not move to distant places

because they look on death seriously.

Even though they have ships and carts, 

they will have no use for them.

Even though they have armour and weapons,

 they will not make a show of them.

Let people return to the use of the knotted rope.

Let them find relish in their food and beauty in their clothes.

Let them be contented in their abode and be happy in the way they live.

Those adjoining states are within sight of one another,

and the sounds of dogs barking and cocks crowing

in one state can be heard in another,

yet people of one state will grow old and die

without having had any dealings with people of another state.

Review

    Here in this Chapter, Lao Tzu tells us his ideal country for people. It need not be a big country with large population. On the contrary, Lao Tzu thinks that a small country with small population is ideal for people to live, therefore, he begins with the following:

“Reduce the size and population of the state.”

    An ideal country for people need not be large in area and population. What we need is simple and carefree life. To make our life simple, we do not need many belongings, entertainments and social interactions with different people. We should lessen all these to make more time and space for us to enjoy our life with proper working and resting. To live in a large country with big cities, our life will become hustle and bustle with a lot of variations of eating, drinking, clothing, working, entertaining and social interaction. People in the modern society have got lost easily in the glamour of the city life. They do not have much time and space to stay quietly contemplating on their inner life. They also do not have much chance to enjoy the beauty of the nature because the natural environment has been exploited for construction of different buildings, facilities and artificial decorations. People themselves become artificial and unnatural. They do not know what their pure nature should be. To live in a small state, our life will turn to be simple, which is friendly to our pure nature. Then Lao Tzu further elaborates how this small state should be:

“Ensure that even though people have different kinds of tools,

they will not use them.”

    To make our life simple, we do not need many different kinds of tools and devices to deal with our chore, and we also do not need many entertainments and recreations. Our time is short in a day, we should live with simplicity. Do not bother our life too much with complex of different work and activities.

“Ensure also that people will not move to distant places

because they look on death seriously.”

    We also do not need to travel long distance to move to another country to earn our living if we can have a simple livelihood with the nature. If people can enjoy their homeland so much, they do not want to take the risk of going out to other countries to settle their new life. They cherish their life so much in their homeland. They look on death seriously, so they do not want to migrate to the strange place. In the ancient China, people usually migrated to other places for livelihood because they suffered very hard in their homeland like famine or great oppression from the authority. Then Lao Tzu further elaborates:

“Even though they have ships and carts, they will have no use for them.”

    Imperialism started when the western powers could travel far away to different corners of the world to start war and exploit people, to colonize different countries making them end up with poverty and underdevelopment, which is the reason Lao Tzu tells everyone to return to their simple living. Do not covet other people’s belongings. People will not rob and steal if they are contented with what they have. They even do not need to have ships and carts to travel on land and by sea. Let all these transportation means useless if we do not need to travel long distance.

“Even though they have armour and weapons,

they will not make a show of them.”

    We also do not need to start war against anyone to rob and exploit. If we are all living in different small states, what is the need of showing off the armour and weapons? They are only useful for big countries to manifest its power. If all people are contented with simple life, then what is the need to fight against each other to retain their power and authority? All these weapons and armour are useless. Then people will have more time and natural resources to improve their life rather than wasting all the resources to prepare for wars to steal and rob and exploit.

    Just if people can enjoy their simplicity, warfare will be gone. If our world can use our resources to help people improve their livelihood instead of having large expenditures on weapons and war preparation, there will be no more hunger, thirst, homeless and poverty in our world. However, our real situation is that many countries in our world have made incredibly large expenditures on arm force every year; therefore, Lao Tzu tells us the ideal country for people when we all return to our simplest life:

“Let people return to the use of the knotted rope.”

    This is the simplest way of life in China when people only used knotted rope to assist them to record their livelihood. At that time, the primitive people even did not have pen and paper to record their life. This is the way of primitive life which Lao Tzu wants to give us a great impact of his words on the importance of simplicity.

    Lao Tzu is a great philosopher on humanitarianism. He does not mean that we all should live like animals in the forest. He just reminds us to live in a civilized way with simplicity, the way where everyone can have sufficient provisions without greed, worries and conflicts, thus Lao Tzu says:

“Let them find relish in their food and beauty in their clothes.

Let them be contented in their abode and be happy in the way they live.”

    What Lao Tzu appreciates is the small rich country where every resident can live well with food, clothing and customs. We can see many countries in our world have used large resources for fighting each other or making rich people much richer instead of making sure that everyone can meet their basic needs. To return to our simplicity, we do not need to travel abroad and we also do not need to start war with other countries. Let every small country be contented with what their natural environment nourishes them in the form of their culture and customs. Our world before imperialism started by the western powers was much more in peace without large-scale of warfare. Taking the example of China, how a country was exploited by many western powers including Japan and finally ended up with the Second World War and extreme poverty of the majority.

    For more than 2500 years ago, Lao Tzu foresaw the evil of countries interacting with each other for robbing and exploitation by industrial revolution, imperialism and colonization from 18th century to 20th century. Therefore, Lao Tzu shows us another picture how small countries should be contented with their own life and resources without any greed and even curiosity to interact with each other. People of different countries do not intend to know each other no matter they are far or near. Here Lao Tzu tries to give us the impact of his words by exaggerated expression:

“Those adjoining states are within sight of one another,

and the sounds of dogs barking and cocks crowing

in one state can be heard in another,

yet the people of one state will grow old and die

without having had any dealings with people of another state.”